Burns Best Farm

Awash in Squash

I mentioned to FarmWife that I would post a banner on my blog when we had some rain here, as we have been and are still in extreme drought conditions.  We have had a little liquid heaven in the last 10 days or so, and while I am thankful for it, the total accumulation is not even an inch.   A couple of times the dirt has actually changed to a darker color, but there is nothing that could remotely resemble mud going on here.

Our first crop to arrive in any quanitity is summer squash.  Mike started transplants of yellow crookneck and a lovely scalloped pattypan squash; he also direct seeded both of those plus an Italian zucchini.  The tranplants have been bearing now for a couple of weeks.  (Those plants direct seeded look good but are still a few weeks away from production.)  The squash tastes great and I have roasted and stuffed the pattypan a couple of times.  It has a nice sweetness that comes out when it's roasted. 

The lettuce, which we can't eat quickly enough to keep up with, has begun to bolt, or so have the largest heads.  The tomato plants look good and we completed the trellis this week for all nine rows.  Yes, we have close to 300 tomato plants in the ground.  The cherry tomato plants have begun to set fruit and I am anxiously awaiting the first hint of color.  How else do you know it's summer? 

In the tomato bed we have 7 or 8 volunteer watermelon and/or canteloupe plants that have situated themselves close to a drip irrigation source.  This same field last year was given over to the johnson grass weeds that popped up instead of the corn we actually planted (this was the second corn planting that we lost to last summer's drought....are you catching a theme here?)  The summer before that, in '05, for those still hanging with me, we planted watermelon and canteloupe in that field. 

We knew there were a few volunteer melon plants of unknown varieties that grew in with the johnson grass, but the weeds got so high and thick we gave up on trying to find any actual melons.  These little volunteers that are showing themselves now are third generation to the last melon seeds we bought in '05.  Don't you love heirloom, open-pollinated plants?  I am fairly certain I have at least two different varieties this summer by looking at the leaves.  And since we have drip irrigation around the tomatoes and we keep that area weeded well (ok, weeded), we should be able to harvest something.  I'll keep you posted on what they turn out to be!

I have harvested a few potatoes from my potato bed (please read through my spring archives to follow my potato drama....I'm too lazy to enter a link) and while I'll do things differently this fall when I plant more, I am generally pleased with the outcome. 

There's more going on and I'll just have to check back in by early next week to post those details.  The chickens are growing and the roosters are crowing and the beans are blooming, and life is good.  I hope yours is.

300 tomato plants?

09:46, 2007-Jun-18 .. Posted by mulberrylane

What do you do with all of them... I imagine you must sell them. I am hoping to have 50 or so organic tomato plants and I already have 23 plants in my other garden... but 300??? wow!

Warmly, Melissa